Have to say after waiting years to have my little girl I don't feel I constantly have to entertain her. Children are very easily pleased. My daughter loves me to play her even though she has lots of toys. Keep it simple. Walks on the beach, trips to the park and lots of tickles.

Volunteer to walk dogs for your local rescue?We don't do anything to entertain them over the holidays, they need to entertain themselves.They don't look to do anywhere as they want to play with their toys

I couldn't agree more with mummyme, those are powerful words of wisdom. When kids are 'bored' it just means they have not exercised their imagination enough. In this would of 'real' stuff, the magic of pretend play has been sidelined to the bin of 'unproductive'. All evidence gathered shows that the educational stuff is the most useless form of 'play'. It is a chore and seldom real fun, but when left alone they find the wonderful world of the imagination. Everything is a toy and can be used for magic... throw a blanket over a table and you have a fort ;)

If you doubt the power of how your imagination is the key to your intelligence, think of the last book your read. You saw images and people interact, all in you mind.... that is imagination at work.

Merry Christmas and try standing back and force them to use their natural amazing ability, pretending.

we're in the do-nothing camp too. my ds really looks forward to not going anywhere, and Stephen's day was always a day in my own house where nobody got dressed: we kids thought it was the biz! that said, we'll probably fit in a cinema trip and a couple of nice walks to balance up for all the food and chilling ;) I have to agree that we adults can tend to overdo it. a couple of nice family days out are lovely, but if you ask the kids, I bet most would vote for the days at home.

Hot chocolate tip for kids. Go to costa. You can get a babychino (small hot chocolate) with marshmallows for less than one euro - i think it is 75 cent. My kids love it and so cheap. Way too expensive to but regular hot chocs for all of them.

I read a post here to bring hit chocolate in a flask when out - we did it the other week when visitong santa at belvedere and my children loved it. I got some mini marshmellows and we have loads of plastic cups but they loved it and much cheaper then buying hot choc for 3 children. So plenty of woods/forests etc will be done with hot chocolate in the bag with the sambos. Hopefully there'll be a few dry days to get out

We the opposite here, love chilling out at Christmas, it's the only time of year we are not constantly on the road. We chill out here at home for the two weeks and will only visit once or twice. Kids have asked for pj days & board games with mom n dad, this is the only time we aren't too busy to play with them & I love it. I intend on spending very little money & will do no day trips anywhere!

Mine like some time at home to play with new games but I need to get out of the house for my own sanity! I've booked a panto trip, will do a charity walk on st Stephens day (weather permitting) and lots of woodland or beach walks with the dog. Ice skating one day too.

Totally agree with the other posts there. Kids need to learn to entertain themselves. These days people seem to feel that they need to fill every minute of their kids time with activities and whatnot. Most of the time kids just want to play and they love when adults play with them, well my two do. It's nice to do the odd activity/outing but I don't think it's necessary to have a plan for every day of the week.

I'm with you Anonymous. We can get so caught up with filling our children's time with activities and entertainment when sometimes they just need to be. I'm guilty of trying to make their life's exciting and interesting but really children need to learn to be content as they are for the most part and just make their own fun.

I used to be all about bringing my kids off and doing exciting things that usually cost me money but now it's about finding ways to entertain themselves. Think kids need to learn to entertain themselves. We did when we were little. Mine like drawing on the pavement with chalk creating an imaginary land, playing board games and wrestling!! I've three boys and sometimes I just let them chase each other around the house with swords and guns We watch lots of movies on showbox and go walking and cycling too. We also visit lots of family. I also give them lots of cardboard boxes, scissors, sellotape and colours and let them off. As you can imagine my house is a kip but they're happy!!